As a young bodybuilder with a thick Austrian accent Arnold Schwarzenegger declared to a sports journalist that he was going to be Hollywood’s biggest star.
When he’d accomplished that, his next goal was to enter politics. In 2003, he became the Governor of California and proceeded to implement measures to radically reduce California’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Arnie is a great example of the power of goal setting. Arnie knows how to flex his goal setting muscle. He knows what it takes to get results.
Back in 2015 at the Paris climate talks, Arnie shared one of the secrets to his success: removing the word ‘impossible’ from his vocabulary.
He said this (to hear Arnie say it in his awesome accent, go to 1.48 in this video.
“Ladies and gentlemen, I have heard the word impossible my entire life. I never ever listen to the naysayers. I eliminated the word impossible from my vocabulary. So when people said “It can’t be done”, I did it.”
With the start of the New Year, perhaps it’s time for us to embrace a bit of Arnie’s philosophy. If you removed the word impossible from your vocabulary and you could do anything, what would you do?
Perhaps you’ve already tried to become more organized/productive/healthier, etc but things didn’t work out.
As author and coach M.J. Ryan states when we don’t achieve results overnight “we resign ourselves to staying the same, convinced that we are hopeless, weak and unmotivated- which makes us even more stuck”.
But what many of us don’t realise is that change can be hard. It’s usually a really messy process. You’re going to slip up (many times). That’s just how it goes.
It’s the thought that things should be smooth sailing and easy that leads people to give up too soon.
The good news is there are simple things you can do to boost your chances of sticking to your goals. In her book This Year I Will … M.J. Ryan explores a range of different strategies that can help you to do what’s most important to you and do the things you’ve always wanted to do.
Below are 10 ways you can avoid the pitfalls most people make when it comes to setting new years resolutions/goals.
1. Accept that making change can be awkward
Making change can feel awkward and uncomfortable, especially at the beginning. You shouldn’t interpret this discomfort as a sign that you can’t or shouldn’t stick to your goals.
Remember, you’re trying to change a deeply ingrained habit, which you’ve probably done for many years. Expect that it’s going to feel awkward for a time.
Instead of thinking something is wrong, embrace the discomfort.
For example, as I write this I’m working at my treadmill desk. I’m walking and writing, which feels completely different to sitting and writing. The experience feels a bit like riding a bike for the first time (just not quite as wobbly). It has taken a few sessions to work out the right walking speed to be able to write. But it’s getting easier. After every session, I feel a bit more comfortable walking/working at my treadmill desk.
2. Have a backup plan (and backup plans to your backup plans)
You may have good intentions to take action on your goals every day, but life is unpredictable and does not always go to plan. Don’t use this as an excuse not to take action. You need to have a backup plan.
For example, you could have a goal to exercise every day by walking or going to the gym. If it starts to rain on a walking day, don’t use that as an excuse not to exercise. Your back up plan could be to grab an umbrella and start walking. Pull out a yoga mat and do some stretches in your lounge. Or be flexible with your routine and head to the gym.
Imagining where and how things can go wrong and devising backup plans increases our chances of following through with our intentions.
You may even want to consider devising backup plans to your backup plans!
3. Focus your mind on one thing at a time
The human brain can be easily overwhelmed by taking on too much. Focusing the brain on making one big change at a time can help you to stay focused and take positive action steps forward.
M.J. Ryan suggests giving your year a theme around your goal. For example, this year could be the year of learning to say no or the year of fun/play. Using a frame for your goal can be a powerful reminder and can help to propel you into action.
4. Stop setting unrealistic, over-the-top, crazy goals
I was in the library the other day, browsing through some of the magazines. I couldn’t help but notice some of the bold and ridiculous claims on the covers. Claims such as “Lose 25 kilograms in 30 days”.
According to M.J. Ryan such claims are completely irresponsible. They create unrealistic expectations that lead people to give up on their goals.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s good to aim high. But we need to look at what is going to be realistic and humanly possible given our life circumstances.
You can certainly lose 25 kilograms (if that’s what you want to do). But rather than it taking 25 days, give yourself at least 25 weeks.
5. Discover your success formula
Books can be a wealth of knowledge and provide lots of practical advice and strategies. But they can also leave us feeling mentally overwhelmed.
There is no shortage of books and websites on certain topics. Instead of taking action to achieve your goals, we can get lost in reading rather than the actual doing.
It’s time to stop looking for answers in books and websites.
M.J. Ryan challenges us to explore our own success formula. Here’s how you do it:
Think about some of the things you’ve accomplished in your life (e.g. finishing school, being a good friend and/or learning a particular skill). How did you do these things? What strategies and strengths did you need?
See if you can see any patterns emerging. Bring those key strategies and traits to your next challenge.
6. Go for growth
Stanford researcher Carol Dweck says there are two different mindsets you can have when it comes to learning: a growth or fixed mindset.
A growth mindset will support you to stick at pursuing your goals, whereas a fixed mindset is likely to lead to giving up early on when confronted with the smallest of obstacles.
What does a growth mindset look like?
It’s characterized by a love of learning. A sense of curiosity (What can I learn from this slip up?). Persisting in the face of challenges.
If you have a growth mindset, you think “If I keep at it, I’ll see results. I’ll get better at this”. Effort equals results.
People with a growth mindset also tend to plan out how they’ll achieve their goals by considering what, where, how and when they’ll take action. In contrast, people with a fixed mindset don’t plan and simply say “I’m just going to do it!”. But do what? These vague statements result in people often not accomplishing their goals.
7. Start before you feel ready
The conditions may not be ideal. You may not even feel ready or 100% sure about whether you want to do this. But force yourself to start.
Motivation works in an interesting way. If we waited for motivation to strike before we did anything, chances are nothing would ever get done.
Motivation actually comes from taking action and seeing results. You can read more about this here.
8. Stop asking Why? Start asking What?
“Why do I procrastinate?”, “Why am I so disorganized?” and “Why am I so lazy?”
M.J Ryan says too much navel gazing and asking “why” doesn’t help us to change our behaviour.
It’s far more effective to focus your energy and attention on what you can do to become the person you want to be.
Instead of asking “Why am I so disorganised?”, ask “What do I need to do to be more organised?”
9. Remind yourself of your goal
Sometimes we forget what our goals are. The surrounding environment can be so tempting that what we say we are committed to goes out the window.
For example, one of my goals is to eat healthy foods that nourish my body and mind. But last night when I was at a party I found myself standing near a bowl of potato chips, munching away on them. It wasn’t until I felt a slight pain in my stomach that I was reminded of my goal to eat healthy foods! I stepped away from the bowl of chips and got myself a glass of water.
What could I have done to avoid eating all those chips?
I could have asked my friend to remind me of my healthy eating goal. I could have envisaged the junk food before going to the party and planned to bring my own healthy food. There’s lots of things I could have done, but keeping my goal clear in my mind would have helped me to stay on track.
10. Engineer your environment for change
Set up your home environment so it nudges you towards the behaviours you want to engage in. For instance, if you want to add more movement to your day, why not place a treadmill or exercise bike in front of the television? Or some hand weights and a stretch band next to your desk?
Sure, there’s no guarantee that you will use them, but having them visable can help to remind you of your goal to move more. Having them easily accessible (and not packed away in boxes in a spare room) means you’ve removed some the barriers to using them.
M.J. Ryan suggests ‘temptation proofing’ your environment. Don’t have things in your house that will tempt you to eat badly, waste your time, etc.
Last year I set a goal to decrease my digital distractions. I made my home wifi free during the day. This may sound a little extreme but it meant I was able to focus on writing my doctoral thesis and push through the discomfort. If I had access to the Internet, it would have been too easy to distract myself with funny videos and facebook when things got tough.
What if, armed with these psychological strategies for change, you managed to stick to your goals and see positive (even life changing) results this year? What if you tried removing the word impossible from your vocabulary? Even for just one day?
See what happens. You’ve got nothing to lose.
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For context, she was a sales manager who used a BlackBerry phone for work (a fancy, expensive device at the time).
Every minute of the interview, her phone pinged with a notification or she received an email alert on her laptop. She’d glance at one of her devices and, with a panicked look, say, “I need to answer this!”
It was an awkward and disjointed conversation, full of stops and starts. I have to admit, her behaviour annoyed me. I soon realised I wasn’t the only person feeling this way.
The sales manager mentioned that she had a 4-year-old daughter who would get upset with her.
She told me that her little girl would beg her to put her phone and computer away. She’d tug at her clothes and cry, “Mummy! Mummy! Put your phone away!”
I appreciated this woman’s honesty, especially when she said to me:
“On the weekend, I’m with my kids but not truly with them… if you know what I mean”.
I knew exactly what she meant.
That was over 10 years ago. Fast forward to today, and we’re all a bit like that sales manager. But things are a lot worse now.
Instead of being overwhelmed and distracted by phone calls and work emails, we’re dealing with powerful Big Tech companies that hijack our time, energy, and attention.
They’ve made us weak-willed and impulsive.
We’re now in a position where distraction is something we crave rather than put up with.
When we have a gap in our schedule or we have to wait in line, what do most of us do? We reach for our phones without even thinking.
Rather than be alone with our thoughts, we desperately try to fill the space with ‘phone snacks’.
When we feel confused, frustrated, or bored, we run to our devices to escape the discomfort and our brains reward us for doing so.
Every time we switch tasks, our brain releases a little shot of dopamine.
It’s these quick hits of dopamine that train us to crave checking our phones and, ultimately, multitasking.
In an environment of unrestricted tech use, my brain is like a wild monkey. It wants to run around, make a mess, and explore many different things all at once.
I can relate to Dr Nancy Colier when she writes in The Power of Off, the mind on technology is like a “wild, locked-up monkey that’s drunk two bottles of wine chased by a shot of Scotch and been stung by a whole swarm of bees”.
When I start multitasking (and it doesn’t take much to get me going), I feel amped up, frenzied, and agitated. My energy feels a little crazy.
Research shows that as we quickly switch from one task to another, we rapidly deplete our finite mental resources and put our brains under a lot of stress.
But it gets worse . . .
When we multitask, we also experience what researcher Sophie Leroy calls Attention Residue.
In a research paper called Why is it so hard to do my work? Leroy explains Attention Residue as the extent to which your attention is only partially focused on the current activity because a prior activity (the task you rapidly switched from) is still holding part of your attention.
Why does this matter?
Leroy’s research found that when you experience Attention Residue, your performance suffers.
It’s as if you’ve taken a big dollop of the previous task and put a thick slather of it all over the current task, thereby making a mess of the present moment.
The good news is we can stop messing with our precious moments by focusing on one task at a time.
In his excellent book Time Surfing, Zen Monk Paul Loomans encourages us to focus on one task at a time, with minimal interruptions, and do it until completion. He says if we do this, we will experience a sense of calm and pleasure in everything we do.
Even tasks we consider boring or mundane (e.g., peeling potatoes or cleaning your room) can be transformed into artistry when you are truly present.
Part of the problem is that we’re often in a rush to get to the next thing on our to-do lists. But as Loomans warns, “Rushing is like gulping down time. You’re not living for now but for later”.
To counter this frenetic urge to race ahead, Loomans suggests that we accept whatever we are doing as “the activity of the moment”. In other words, we view the task before us as the most important thing we can be doing in this moment and we forget the rest.
It’s a simple but powerful mental shift.
I’ve noticed that when I accept whatever I am doing as the thing I should be doing right now, I no longer feel the urge to work with such intense energy. I feel calmer. An added bonus is that when I slow down, I make fewer mistakes and tend to do a better job.
At the heart of it, doing one thing at a time means showing up to life and being present, to the good stuff but also the painful, boring bits.
If you find yourself reaching for your phone more than you’d like, ask yourself this question:
“Am I reaching for my phone to escape the present moment?”
For me, the answer is usually yes. I’m trying to avoid the discomfort of life. But life tends to be more meaningful and enjoyable when I stay fully present to what’s happening around me, with my phone out of sight.
Technology will dominate your life, and multitasking will be an issue unless you have strategies to protect your time, energy, and attention.
What motivates me to set limits on my tech use (specifically my phone) is a desire to feel calm, grounded, and focused. I also want to live a life of substance, not one in which I am constantly chasing instant gratification.
Here are the strategies that I am currently practising to help me decrease multitasking and cultivate calm:
When I’m with someone or working on an important task, I put my phone away and keep it out of sight. I want to be fully present with the person I’m with or the task at hand. Why?
Because attention is how we show others they matter.
When someone is checking their phone in a social situation, it communicates “I’m more interested in what’s happening on this screen than I am in you”.
When I think back to the interview with the sales manager, it would have been a better experience for everyone if she had put her phone on silent, left it in her bag, and closed her laptop.
There would have been fewer times saying “What was the question again?” and “Sorry, I can’t remember what we were talking about”.
We probably would have felt more connected, too.
Note: Even when my phone isn’t within arm’s reach, I can still catch myself rapidly switching between web browsers and tasks. However, I’ve noticed that my multitasking significantly increases when my phone is within arm’s reach.
You’ve probably heard of intermittent fasting, where you have a window for eating (e.g., 10am to 6pm). But have you heard of phone fasting?
Phone fasting is a period during the day when your phone is not within reach.
As TJ Power states in The Dose Effect:
“A phone fast enables your dopamine to replenish and creates the opportunity for connection and restoration.”
So, as an experiment, for 30 days, I phone fasted from 8pm until 12noon the next day (allowing myself to make urgent calls if needed). I discovered that this made a big difference to my ability to focus. I also experienced a sense of calm like never before.
At the start of the day, I create a ‘Wish List’ (another wonderful concept from Paul Looman’s Time Surfing book).
I write down all the things I’d like to do in the day, but there’s no pressure to do all of them. I then put the list away, and depending on how I feel, I listen to my intuition and trust myself to choose the right activity to begin with.
Before I start a work session, I also declare what I intend to do (e.g., “Chop vegetables for curry” or “Write for 45 minutes”). If possible, I also like to share what I plan to do with another human (I use an online coworking community called Cave Day to do this).
After every 25-30 minutes of work, I aim to take a short movement break (usually 2-5 minutes in duration). This helps me to stay energised and alert. But most importantly, it gives me a brain boost.
What I wish I had understood when I was younger is that you can’t focus for hours on end. It’s not humanly possible because your brain has a finite amount of attentional resources. This means as you focus on doing a task, your attentional resources get depleted (and if you multitask, you accelerate the depletion even more!).
However, research shows you can boost your attentional resources by taking short breaks or, as Paul Loomans likes to call them, ‘breathers’.
A ‘breather’ is any activity that allows you to get out of your head and grounded in your body.
Some of my favourite breather activities include going for a short walk, chopping vegetables, or riding my bike to pick up a package from the post office. These activities allow my brain and thoughts to roam free.
Although many of us default to checking our phones during breaks, resist the urge. The problem with using your phone on a break is that you’re still in your head. This means you’re churning through your attentional resources instead of replenishing them.
The sense of calm and pleasure I experience when I stop multitasking and focus on doing one thing at a time is second to none.
But in the age of the Attention Economy, with so many companies trying to hijack our attention, it takes discipline and practice to stay focused.
Without strategies in place to protect your focus, the default will be multitasking and its friends – chaos, stress, and fatigue.
We may not have a 4-year-old child tugging on our clothes when we’re using our phones. But perhaps we should all listen to the wisdom of that little girl and put our phones away.
On these days, the temptation to procrastinate and distract oneself can be strong.
I recently spent a few days with my family in the countryside, where I enjoyed reading by a crackling fire. But when I found myself back home in my office, I struggled to get back into the swing of things.
I was experiencing a full-blown holiday comedown.
For some context, I had printed out the slides for an upcoming presentation that I needed to practise, but I felt resistance every time I looked at the slides.
My mind screamed, “Nooo! I don’t want to practise!”. Without even thinking, I kept pushing the slides away like a toddler smooshing their vegetables around on their plate.
But at some point, I caught myself in the act. Without berating myself, I managed to turn things around and ease into my practice.
In this blog, I’ll share a couple of simple strategies I use to get a better handle on my procrastination and overcome resistance.
According to Procrastination scholar Tim Pychyl, procrastination isn’t a time management issue. It’s an emotion management issue. If you can get a better handle on your emotions, you’ll have a better handle on procrastination.
Let’s unpack this…
Often, when we procrastinate, it’s because we’re trying to avoid experiencing negative emotions. The task we need to do brings up feelings of discomfort (e.g., boredom, fear, guilt, anxiety, and stress), so we avoid the task to make ourselves feel better.
But avoidance makes no sense when you think about it.
Oliver Burkeman explains the problems associated with avoidance in his book Meditations for Mortals. He writes:
“The more you organise your life around not addressing the things that make you anxious, the more likely they are to develop into serious problems – and even if they don’t, the longer you fail to confront them, the more unhappy time you spend being scared of what might be lurking in the places you don’t want to go. It’s ironic that this is known, in self-help circles, as ‘remaining in your comfort zone’, because there’s nothing comfortable about it. In fact, it entails accepting a constant background tug of discomfort – an undertow of worry that can sometimes feel useful or virtuous, though it isn’t – as the price you pay to avoid a more acute spike of anxiety.”
Dutch Zen Monk Paul Loomans labels the tasks we avoid as ‘gnawing rats’. He says these tasks “eat away at you under the surface”.
Have you noticed that whenever you try to avoid a task, it’s usually still on your mind, using up your precious mental resources?
That’s what Loomans means by the task eating away at you under the surface.
Why does he use the peculiar term ‘gnawing rat’? Looman’s daughter used to have pet rats that would eat loudly under his bed, keeping him awake at night.
Loomans explains that if you can befriend your gnawing rats, you can transform them into white sheep. Just like a white sheep follows you around passively, once you transform a task into a white sheep, it’s a lot easier to make a start.
The question is, how do you transform a ‘gnawing rat’ (a task you are avoiding) into a white sheep?
The key is to approach procrastination from a place of curiosity.
Loomans suggests creating a positive, open relationship with the task you’ve been avoiding. You need to sit with it or visualise the task. Instead of giving yourself a hard time, get curious about why you have such a strained relationship with this task.
Loomans advises:
“… you’re not being asked to immediately do whatever it is that’s gnawing at you. The assignment is only to establish a relationship with it. You let all the various facets sink in and then let them go again.
The rat no longer gnaws at you, and it has settled down. It’s no longer trying to get your attention, but follows quietly behind. It now has white legs and curly fleece – it’s turned into a white sheep.”
I decided to follow Looman’s advice with this presentation I had been avoiding. To begin with, I pulled out my slides and I just sat with them.
I closed my eyes, tuned into my body and asked myself:
“Why am I feeling resistance towards practising this presentation? What’s going on?”
Within 30 seconds, the answer came to me. The resistance came from how I thought I’d feel after doing my speech practice: exhausted and emotionally depleted.
You see, when I practice a presentation, I typically go into turbocharge mode. It’s like I’m delivering the real thing: I gesticulate, project my voice, pace around the room, and rely on my memory and the pictures on my slides to remember the content (I don’t refer to my notes).
All of this takes a lot of mental and physical effort.
So, naturally, when I looked at my slides for this one-hour presentation, I felt flat and heavy.
I equated one hour of presentation practice with having a fried brain by the end.
But then I had a brilliant idea. I thought, “What if this practice session didn’t have to feel like a hard slog? What if it could be fun, light and easy but still effective? What would that look like?”
It immediately occurred to me that I had to shorten my practice session, which brings me to the next strategy . . .
To keep my practice session fun, light and easy, I settled on doing just five minutes of speech practice.
Instead of pacing around my office and practising in turbocharge mode for an hour, I sat myself down with a hot chocolate. I set a timer for five minutes, pulled out a mini whiteboard and started recalling the content (scribbling out and drawing pictures of what I needed to say).
When the timer went off, I checked my notes to see how I went (What did I remember? What did I forget to say?).
Then, I checked in with myself – “How am I feeling after that mini practice session?”. Instead of feeling depleted, I was feeling good! I felt less overwhelmed by this presentation. The resistance had subsided. As Paul Loomans would say, the presentation had transformed from a gnawing rat into a white sheep!
I felt excited, even a little inspired.
I could have easily kept practising for another 10-20 minutes, but I decided to give myself a break to re-energise (I got up and walked on the treadmill for 2 minutes).
This gave me insight into the need to vary the intensity and mode of each study session, depending on my energy levels and what I have planned for the rest of the day. Sometimes it’s good to go into turbocharge mode, but not always.
Not every study/work session has to be hardcore. Work sessions that leave you feeling completely drained by the end can be counterproductive. As Professor BJ Fogg says, “Tiny is mighty”.
Firstly, tiny study sessions are less scary for your brain. Five minutes of speech practice and flashcard practice feels easy. You think, “I can do 5 minutes!”.
In contrast, one hour of study feels scary for your brain, which means you’re more likely to procrastinate.
When you go tiny, it’s also easier to give your full focus to the task at hand. Here’s the thing about focus: focusing your mind takes a lot of your brainpower. And you have a limited supply of brainpower!
As you sit there and study, your brainpower gets depleted. But research shows one way to boost your attentional resources (i.e. your brainpower) is by taking regular breaks. If you study in short focused bursts and then take a break, you can stay refreshed and ensure your study sessions are effective.
But most importantly, tiny study sessions help to create momentum, and they leave you feeling good!
I tend to push myself to the point of exhaustion when I practise my talks. But I can see now that this makes it hard for me to want to practise in the future.
By dedicating just 5–10 minutes to the task and enjoying it, I’m more likely to do another 5 minutes (or more) of practice tomorrow. Doing five minutes of practice every day is infinitely better than doing no practice or cramming a long practice session in the day before.
You’re not going to go from good to great in one tiny study session. But you can make meaningful progress and create the momentum you need to keep going.
So, don’t turn your nose up at five minutes of flashcard practice or 10 minutes of doing a practice test. If done with focus and intention, that’s a solid study session that can set you on the path to success.
Image credit:
Toddler (featured in image 2): “Skeptical” by quinn.anya is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
Rat: “Fancy rat blaze” by AlexK100 is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
In our modern world, overwhelm and distraction threaten to constantly derail us.
As artist Austin Kleon states in his book Keep Going:
“Your attention is one of the most valuable things you possess, which is why everyone wants to steal it from you. First you must protect it, and then you must point it in the right direction.”
In this article, I share a powerful practice that can help you protect your attention and point it in the right direction: working like a sprinter.
As a teenager, I remember watching Australian Aboriginal athlete Cathy Freeman run in the 400-metre race at the Sydney 2000 Olympics.
In that incredible race, Cathy did one thing and one thing only: she ran as fast as she could in a focused, intense burst.
She was 27 years old and had been training for this event for 17 years. Having won silver at the previous Olympics, the pressure was on. The entire nation was watching Cathy.
To this day, I still get goosebumps when I watch the footage of this race (you can watch it here).
Cathy was in the zone. She was completely focused on the task at hand. She knew what she needed to do: run.
Shortly after crossing the finish line, Cathy sat down to catch her breath and process what she had just accomplished (she had won gold). The crowd went wild and was completely absorbed in the moment, too.
Back in the year 2000, during the Sydney Olympics, smartphones and social media didn’t exist. Not everyone had access to the internet (my family did, but it was slow, expensive, and could only be used at home on a computer). In this environment, it was much easier to focus.
It’s fair to say that the early 2000s were simpler times.
Some scholars (e.g., Dr Jonathan Haidt, and Dr Anna Lembke) argue that smartphones and social media have caused several harms to society, including a reduced capacity to pay attention and an inability to tolerate discomfort.
Despite the noise and chaos of the modern world, it’s possible to train yourself to focus better.
How do we cultivate better focus?
One way is to tackle our work like sprinters.
The practice of working like a sprinter is refreshingly simple: You work in a short, focused burst (25-45 minutes), then take a break to rest and recover (5-15 minutes). After that, you repeat the process a few times before taking a much longer break (30 minutes).
I usually work this way for about 3 – 4 hours a day.
But I’m not fixed and rigid about this practice. This technique is adaptable. The key is to listen to your body and tune into what it needs. Make this practice work for you.
If you develop the habit of working in this focused way, you’ll be amazed by how much you can get done. More importantly, instead of feeling mentally fried at the end of the day, you’ll feel energised. You’ll also experience a delightful sense of calm and peace.
In short, this is a practice well worth cultivating.
In a nutshell, working like a sprinter involves three distinct phases:
It’s simple, but it’s a practice that takes practise.
Below, I delve into each phase in more detail and share some things that help me work in focused sprints.
I do my best work sprints in the morning between 9am and 12noon. But these focused sprints don’t just magically happen. It’s not like I roll out of bed and dive straight into a work sprint. First, I need to warm up.
The warm-up phase allows me to get in the right headspace and set up my environment to be focus-friendly. It has a dramatic impact on my brain’s performance, affecting my ability to focus, creativity, productivity, and mood.
Just to be clear, the stars don’t have to align, and the conditions don’t need to be perfect to kick off a work sprint. I’ve simply noticed that I can work better after engaging in a few behaviours and morning practices.
Here’s what I’ve found makes a difference . . .
What distracts you when you’re trying to work? What things frequently derail you?
Take note of the things that hijack your attention and throw you off track.
In one of my favourite books on getting organised, Organizing Solutions for People with ADHD, Susan Pinsky writes:
“The more you explore the distractions that keep you from working, as well as the tools that help you to focus, the more organized and productive you will become.”
Once you know what distracts you, you can figure out ways to deal with those distractions, which brings me to the next point . . .
For each distraction, think of ways to make it harder to engage with it. What barriers or strategies could you put in place? Are there any tools that could help you focus better?
For example:
Dealing with distractions from the outset (before you sit down to do your work sprints) makes it easier to stay focused and on track.
Many of us have become used to constant stimulation; without it, we feel anxious. This is why we reach for our phones and scroll through our feeds as soon as we experience a slight pang of boredom.
If you can relate to this, you will benefit from engaging in a daily meditation practice.
If you’re new to meditation, I recommend starting with the following tiny habit of doing a micro-meditation:
After I put on my shoes, I will pause and breathe in and out three times.
Not sure how to meditate? Close your eyes and focus on your breath, going in and out. If a random thought enters your mind (and it will), notice it and let it go. Then, return your focus to your breath.
Alternatively, you could listen to a guided meditation using an app such Insight Timer.
Clinical psychiatrist Dr John Ratey describes exercise as “like a little bit of Ritalin and a little bit of Prozac”. It’s powerful stuff.
Research shows that physical movement can help us focus better and learn faster. In terms of counteracting stress and boosting our mood, movement is like getting a biochemical massage.
This is one reason getting on my treadmill and doing interval training has become a non-negotiable part of my day. In the words of Tara Schuster:
“[Working out] is my preventative measure against the anxiety that lurks in my mind. I must throw myself out of bed in the morning and make it to the gym because I will always, always feel better for it.”
By warming up my body through physical movement, I’m able to warm up my brain by bathing it in feel good chemicals.
Deliberately exposing myself to the discomfort of running also helps me sit with the unpleasant feelings that arise when faced with difficult work. As Alex Soojung-Kim Pang states in his book Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less:
“Exposing yourself to predictable, incremental physical stressors in the gym or the playing field increases your capacity to be calm and clear headed in stressful real world situations.”
On the days when I skip my morning run or a weightlifting session, my wellbeing and productivity take a hit. I don’t feel as mentally sharp or confident about tackling my work. I’ve also noticed that I’m more likely to get distracted and give in to instant gratification during a work sprint.
Can you do anything in the evening to prepare for your morning work sprints? Completing a few quick tasks before bed can help you conserve energy the next day.
Here are a few simple things I like to do in the evening to get ready for the day ahead:
Doing these simple things allows me to carry out my morning routine with ease. Then, I can hit the ground running with a clear, focused mind for my first work sprint.
If I check my phone for messages and engage in frivolous texting first thing, I crave distraction and the dopamine hits that come with it for the rest of the day.
For these reasons, I have implemented the following tech rules:
This may sound extreme, but these restrictions are incredibly liberating. As the author of the book Stand Out of Our Light, James Williams states:
“Reason, relationships, racetracks, rules of games, sunglasses, walls of buildings, lines on a page: our lives are full of useful constraints to which we freely submit so that we can achieve otherwise unachievable ends.”
By blocking myself from digital distractions and all the noise that comes with it, I can focus on chipping away at the projects that are most important to me.
Just like a chef prepares all the ingredients before cooking a dish (i.e. they create the mise en place), set yourself up with everything you need to do your work. The last thing you want is to get a few minutes into a work sprint and realise you need to go find a pen that works.
If you have everything you need within arm’s reach, it’s easier to stay focused on the task and get into a flow state.
Once the warm-up phase is complete, we move into the sprint phase. Now, it’s time to do the work.
If you’ve done the work in the warm-up phase, the sprint phase is a lot easier. All you need to do is:
There’s no need to feel rushed as you work. You’re not competing with anyone else. This is not a race. It’s totally fine to take things slow.
Don’t expect the sprint phase to be pleasant. Even after a fabulous warm-up, you will most likely feel some discomfort and resistance about doing the work. This is normal.
You’ll feel the urge to run from this discomfort. But instead of running from it, befriend it. Remind yourself that the point of these work sprints is to move the needle on the things that really matter to you.
When the timer goes off, take a moment to acknowledge yourself for showing up to do the work. Remember, this practice takes practise, and you just got some reps in.
Now it’s time to rest. You’ll probably have some momentum by now, so you’ll feel like pushing on but stop what you’re doing and step away from your work. As Ali Abdaal mentions in his book Feel-Good Productivity:
“Rest breaks are not special treats. They are necessities.”
I’m not going to lie: this phase has been the hardest for me to master. As someone with workaholic tendencies, I’ve had to work hard at getting rest.
Why is the rest phase so important?
Because the longer you focus, the harder it is to maintain your focus. The act of focusing depletes your brainpower.
The best way to recharge a depleted brain is to rest.
Like focus, rest is a skill. It takes practise. You have to be able to resist the lure of busyness and our fast-paced, always-on culture.
Here are some of my favourite ways to rest and recharge at the moment:
Whenever I find myself wondering whether to keep working or take a break, I ask myself:
“What kind of boss do I want to be for myself? A mean-spirited, hard taskmaster? Or a generous, caring boss who looks out for their employees’ wellbeing?”
The answer is simple: I choose to be a generous boss to myself. Therefore, I give myself permission to rest.
I’ve come to see each of the phases of working like a sprinter (Warm-up, Sprint, and Rest and Recovery) as critical to staying healthy and balanced. Through trial and error, I’ve learned that skipping the warm-up or rest phase or going too hard in the sprint phase can lead to chaos and exhaustion.
As you cultivate the practice of working like a sprinter, significant things will happen to you. Not only will you notice that your productivity goes through the roof, but you’ll experience mental calm and clarity like never before.
As digital distractions no longer dominate your day, the noise of the world gets dialled down. You’ll find it easier to tune into what you need and what matters most to you.
I cannot stress enough that this is a practice that takes practise! One or two sprints won’t cut it. You need to persevere for long enough to experience the incredible benefits of this powerful practice.
